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Whereas, It has pleased an inscrutable Providence to remove from the field of usefulness in this world,-in the commencement of his professional career,-Dr. E. M. Hume, our late associate in this Society; therefore,

Resolved, That in the death of Dr. E. M. Hume we lose an earnest student and ambitious seeker after professional honor and truth, whose talents gave promise of future distinction in the line of his profession.

Resolved, That we tender to his widow and family our heartfelt sympathy for this their great affliction they have been called upon to sustain.

Resolved, That this preamble and resolutions, signed by our President and Secretary, be published and an engrossed copy forwarded to the family of the deceased. J. ORTON EDIE, M. D., Secretary. CHARLES SHEPARD, M. D., President.

At the time of his death he had acquired a good practice and won the confidence of his patrons. His ready repartee and cheerful smile made him always a welcome visitor to the sick

room.

He was the author of several papers, among which we would mention the following: "Differential, Diagnosis of Typhoid and Malarial Fevers," "Mercury," "The Sound." Had planned much work for coming years. The collateral branches of medicine, together with surgery, were of special interest to him.

He was married Nov. 3, 1870, to the second daughter of Wm. Ruddiman, Esq., of Dearborn. An only child, a bright boy, survives him to comfort the heart of his mother.

In May, 1876, that terrible disease, "phthisis pulmonalis,” which had been handed down as a hereditary taint, began to manifest itself as attacking him. That disease which had refused to spare his father now marked him for its victim, and his friends could see him sinking steadily down under the power of the fell destroyer.

For a time he was attended by his medical brethren of Grand Rapids with untiring solicitude and daily extension of faithful care and sympathy. He always spoke to me with true and deep felt gratitude of their attentions. They were truly "brothers born for adversity," and fulfilled the higher and holier offices of their calling in sympathizing with him when laid away from active duties with them, both in general practice and the meetings of the Society.

At length it became evident that he was no longer to be an active member in the profession he so dearly loved, and as the shadows of approaching death began to shut out life, with its bright plans and phantom visions, its rainbow hues and aircastles, he began to see the close of that glowing perspective

no longer over-arched with the green boughs of hope, and he became conscious that the end was nearing, and, like Barzillai of old, he asked the question: "How long have I to live?" His brother physicians could not give him much hope, and he therefore came to the home of his father-in-law, where, in his declining strength and wasting sickness, he was watched by kind friends, who vied with each other in supplying every want and extending tender sympathy and words of comfort at the bedside of the sufferer.

Immediately on coming to Dearborn he selected me to attend him, and the many hours I spent with the doctor have proved a lesson to me of courage, of self-denial and Christian fortitude which I hope I may never forget.

On the 2d of December, 1876, I followed him from the cars to Mr. Ruddiman's. He stood the journey tolerably well, not being as exhausted as I expected to find him. From that time until the 10th of June the progress was steadily downward. On the 11th of June his pulse was 133, respirations labored, very scanty expectoration. On the 12th of June, pulse 133; no expectoration; matter gurgling in the bronchi. By use of sinapisms to the chest, carbonate of ammonia and seneca and ipecac, together with good doses of quinine, coughing and expectoration of matter was brought about and his pulse sank to 100, breathing easier. On the 14th breathing began to be troubled again, bowels ceasing to act, and kidneys acting with difficulty, and every symptom pointed to approaching death. At his request I remained with him on the evening of the 14th of June and soothed as well as we poor human beings can the last great agony. He died at 12:30 o'clock that night.

Death is often at once the close and the epitome of existence. It is the index at the end of the volume. All a man's properties seem to gather around him as he is about to leave the world. But to Dr. Hume it was not a sudden apparition. He had at the early age of 15 years professed Christ in the Presbyterian church, Norwalk, Ohio. His brilliant and short but active life was over, and many months ere he passed to his rest and his crown the Master saw fit to lay him on a couch of suffering, but among the kindest of friends, who were only too willing to minister to his every want or wish, as the sands in his life glass were slowly falling, grain by grain. Conscious almost to the last, he gave every evidence of being prepared for the change. His suffering (from dyspnoea) was so intense that it was grateful to see death, like the angel in Peter's dungeon, break the

fetters of mortality and from the gloom of night lead out the spirit to a gladsome day, far beyond all human shelters to that city where the wail of the mourner is never heard, and where death never enters,-"a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

APPENDIX.

THE RECEPTION.

On Wednesday evening the medical profession of Lansing had provided for the members of the Michigan State Medical Society, in honor of their convention, a reception at the Lansing House. At the close of President Pratt's address the Society adjourned to the parlors of said house, where its members were joined by a number of ladies and gentlemen of Lansing, and after an hour spent in social converse and music, the party repaired to the spacious diningroom. After satisfying the inner man, toasts were in order, and several sentiments were offered, as follows:

By Dr. Bartholomew:

"In behalf of the physicians of this city, I take pleasure in offering to their guests this sentiment: The Michigan State Medical Society,-long may it continue its work, which has been useful not only to its members but to the people of the State and even to humanity throughout the world."

RESPONSE BY DR. FOSTER PRATT, PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: The duty of responding to this sentiment is devolved upon me, undoubtedly, because I am the recipient of honors from our State Medical Society. Grateful as I am for these expressions of respect and confidence from my professional brethren, it is more a pleasure than a duty to speak of the usefulness of our Society to its members, to the State, and to humanity. Thirteen years ago the individual members of our profession in this State were plodding solitarily along, each in his own chosen path, with more or less of success and with more or less of reputation, but with scarcely any professional fellowship. The inherent selfishness of our human nature, unchecked by wholesome restraints, was permitted to breed professional envies and jealousies, and doctors were too seldom like the "birds of a feather" that "flock together," and quite too often like "the fretful porcupine," whose irritable quills are so prompt to rise in the presence of birds of a similar feather.

But however antagonistic by nature may be the isolated particles of our profession, there is a magnetism in our common interests and common duties that sooner or later has power to arrange these individual particles in definite and harmonious forms. Our Society, therefore, is not a fortunate accident; it came in response to a want; it developed in obedience to a law; and it will endure as long as its existence is useful or necessary to us or to those whom

we serve.

Its primary benefits have been felt, undoubtedly, by its members. They are seen in our better understanding of and our higher regard for each other. We here learn (perhaps with some surprise at first) that others, as well as ourselves, are physicians and gentlemen! Having first learned to entertain a proper respect for each other, we next learn from each other much that is useful in the performance of our duties. Instead of wrapping ourselves in a silly egotism, we have learned to take pride in each other and in our profession; and we have developed among us an esprit de corps that makes us ambitious to be honored members of a body that we honor,-a body that teaches us, first, to be careful to hold ourselves aloof from all professional dishonor or defilement; and careful, in the second place, to keep out or to put out of the recognized ranks of our profession every one whose conduct tends, in any way or in any degree, to dishonor the science or to degrade the practice of medicine.

Our much abused and much derided code of ethics, therefore, is the bond and basis,-is the only bond and basis of our organization. Do not misunderstand me; I do not say it is our only purpose and object (for these are numerous), but I repeat: our code of ethics is the only bond and basis of this and of all American medical societies. What ecclesiastical bodies are in regulating the clerical profession-what the courts are in regulating the legal professionthese medical societies, voluntarily organized by us for self-regulation, are to the medical profession. They are our court in which we consider and decide all questions that pertain to professional conduct. Like the original and fundamental social compact, the medical society grew out of a medical necessity-the necessity of a regulating power. That power we find in the Society and in its code, -a code so brief that it may be summed up in this: that amid all the rivalries of business, and in all our relations with all persons, every recognized member of the profession is expected, and will be required, to conduct himself as becomes a physician and a gentleman.

That differences of opinion and clashing of interests should occasionally occur, in our application and enforcement of this simple but comprehensive code, need not be a cause of surprise; nor will it be wise, from these conflicts or clashings, to predict the failure of our organization or a division of its interests, for the science of medicine (like every other science) is a unit, and its real interests are therefore identical and indivisible.

Whatever tends to elevate a profession so important as is ours to the welfare of humanity, necessarily contributes to the benefit of society and of the State. As much as we clevate our professional and moral power in the relief of sickness and of pain at the bedside and in the family, by so much we enhance the interests and the welfare of our patrons; as much as we increase our knowledge of the causes and the laws of disease and the best methods of preventing its inroads, as much as we save suffering and pain and preserve the life, the health, and the strength of the people, by so much we add to the happiness, the usefulness, and the wealth of the race.

That our Society, through its influence and membership, has done this, I need not detain you to prove. It is enough to say that the medical profession of Michigan, of which this Society is the concrete expression, has made to the common stock of knowledge numerous and honorable contributions of original thought and of research, by which not only we but the entire community have learned much and may yet learn much more regarding the hereditary transmission of disease and of diseased tendencies; the local and preventible causes of disease in earth, air, food, and water; the

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